A CERTAIN RATIO, who celebrate their 40th anniversary this year – have shared details of a new box set, ACR:BOX, out on Mute May 3 via vinyl, CD and digital formats. ACR:BOX was remastered by Martin Moscrop at Abbey Road studios. Featuring over 20 unreleased tracks, the box set will be available as a seven-piece colored vinyl set, a four-CD set and a digital album. Following on from 2018’s compilation, acr:set, the box showcases the diversity of the singles, B-sides and alternative versions of tracks that A Certain Ratio have released, but without repeating tracks recently made available. ACR:BOX collates everything that fans had been missing from the recent reissue campaign and compliments that with a selection found after a deep delve into the archive to find all the hidden gems that had been talked about over the years, but never heard. The box set marks the 40th anniversary of A Certain Ratio’s debut release – the Martin Hannett produced “All Night Party” (Factory Records’ first single release) – which was described recently by Record Collector as “a statement of future intentions: to set funk off against nervous angst.” They went on to be hailed universally as pioneers of what became known as “punk funk”. Their sound is not easily pigeon holed and their influence can never be understated. The band introduced the avant-garde elements of funk, jazz, electronics, tape loops and technology to the pop song, wrapping it in a post punk aesthetic.